Artists twice as likely not to have health insurance, study shows

Top reason artists lack coverage is affordability

Oct. 21, 2013

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The Tennessean

To get help

The FCM and the Aritsts Health Insurance Resource Center joined to create a website to answer frequently asked questions related to health insurance coverage: health.futureofmusic.org. The effort also includes a dedicated hotline at 919-264-0418, managed by the nonprofit organization HeadCount. Anyone in the arts community can call with health insurance questions or for hands-on assistance.

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Twice as many musicians, actors, dancers and other artists lack health care insurance than the general population, according to a study by the Future of Music Coalition and the Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center.

The study, which surveyed 3,402 professional musicians, actors, dancers, visual artists and filmmakers, found that 43 percent lack health insurance. That compares to 18 percent of the general population, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Of the respondents without insurance coverage, 88 percent said they couldn’t afford it, according to survey results.

“These results confirm what arts advocates and supporters already know; that U.S.-based artists are much less likely to have health insurance,” said FMC’s Kristin Thomson, one of the report’s authors. “With vast swaths of the artistic community currently uninsured, and many either self-employed, low-income or under 65, self-employed artists are exactly who the Affordable Care Act is designed to help.”

While 6 percent of the general population pays for its own health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 39 percent of the artists surveyed buy their own insurance, instead of getting it through an employer.